The sequel to one of the most wacky and creative PSP games is coming out soon in early May. Available on UMD this time, and a little later on PSN, What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord? 2 is the predecessor to an even longer title: Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This? The first title was so long that it’s been since shortened to What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord? In these games, you get to be the bad guy. Dig out dungeon mazes and fill them with monsters to kill waves of heroic adventurers. But this time, there’s more of everything. More monsters, more heroes, and more stages.

In My Lord 2 (we’ll just call it that from now on), the evil overlord from the first game summons you again, the God of Destruction. He wants you to help him defeat all the heroes in the J-RPG land continents. To do that, you must design crafty dungeon mazes to help protect the Evil Overlord from the waves of virtuous heroes who will try and stop him. The only thing you control is a little pickaxe which you use to click on squares of dirt to make your labyrinths.

While you dig, you’ll also be building your army. By digging certain squares of dirt, monsters will come out. The initial slime creatures can disperse nutrients to other squares of dirt, and by digging soil full of nutrients; you can create even more powerful monsters. Stronger monsters feed off of lesser baddies, so there’s a bit of an ecosystem simulation with an in-game food chain. In the sequel, you can even make mutated creatures depending on how their environment turns out.

The game gives you a limited time to dig and create monsters before the hero comes. Once he or she (or them) comes, you must place your Dark Lord strategically in your dungeon and hope your monsters kill the good guys before they reach you. If your overlord gets captured and is dragged to the surface, the game is over.

The audio and visuals have a charming 8-bit retro style to them. The dialogue is funny and you can view an Almanac with all your created monsters and heroes you’ve beaten, and there are some pretty funny descriptions.

While the first game was very creative, it had its share of problems. The sequel does a lot to fix those missteps. The tutorials are easier to understand, with picture graphics and tips on how to make good mazes, create monsters, understand character movements, and just how the game works in general. The even give you a sandbox mode to make dungeons and not have to worry about a time limit. You can just noodle around and see what you can make. There are also specific monster making challenges.

The main problem with the first game is that if you lost, you had to start over from the beginning. The sequel fixes this by giving you a world map, and each continent has a few challenges you must pass. This way, you can at least save after every few levels instead of having to start all the way back over. My Lord 2 is still VERY challenging, though, and there remains a big learning curve.

With a few tweaks and improvements, this creative sequel is pretty much more of the same, but it’s what the initial entry should’ve been in the first place. Good news is if you want to try the original game (the name was shortened, but that’s it), it’s available on the PSP Store for only $7.99 for a limited time. The sequel will be available in early May.

Kid Factor:

My Lord 2 is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Animated Blood, Language, Mild Fantasy Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes. Because the visual are all blocky and 8-bit looking, the blood and violence aren’t very graphic at all. The language and suggestive themes are in the text only. Because of the complexity of these titles, they’re best for older kids and teen gamers anyway. The simulation and ecosystem aspects could almost be considered educational, though.